1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an openable motor vehicle roof, for example for a passenger car or a camper or even a camping trailer. Openable motor vehicle roofs are known in a variety of versions. Generally they are used in passenger cars to improve ventilation of the vehicle interior. To do this, openable motor vehicle roofs generally have a cover which can close the opening in the motor vehicle roof and can be raised out of this cover closed position into a cover raised position. In the cover raised position, the cover is raised on at least one side edge relative to the motor vehicle roof so that a ventilation slot is formed. Optionally, these covers can generally be moved over or under the solid roof.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The present invention relates to an openable motor vehicle roof with a sliding head liner which can cover the cover, for example a transparent glass cover, in the cover closed position toward the motor vehicle interior and, moreover, to a certain extent, can follow the cover into the cover raised position, therefore for its part can be moved concomitantly into the raised position of the sliding head liner. In this way, the cover and sliding head liner can jointly clear a ventilation slot.
Moreover the sliding head liner, as the name indicates, can be slid from its closed position in the direction parallel to the roof laterally into its open position so that the cover, or at least a large part of it, is cleared by the sliding head liner. In this way the vicinity can be viewed from within the vehicle interior, for example, through a glass cover and the light conditions in the vehicle interior are improved.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,309,013 discloses an openable motor vehicle roof in which the sliding head liner, with respect to its motion between its closed position and open position, is guided and held using an elongated guide element, along which it can be pushed. The particularity of this openable motor vehicle roof is that part of the guide element is concomitantly moved when the sliding head liner is moved between its raised position and its closed position. This involves the end of the guide element which is assigned to the side of the sliding head liner and the side of the cover which is to be raised. In the area away from this end, the guide element is held stationary in the direction which is vertical with respect to the roof. The mobility of the guide element is intended to enable motion of the sliding head liner between its open position and its raised position with the cover raised. The guide element performs its task therefore not only with the cover closed, but also in the raised state. These additional possibilities have proven effective in practice and are well accepted by users. The ventilation function is improved in this openable motor vehicle roof compared to alternative embodiments in which the sliding head liner must be pushed a distance largely parallel to the roof to establish a ventilation slot with the cover raised or has ventilation slots installed for ventilation purposes. Moreover, the vehicle passengers can better visually perceive the raised position of the cover.
The object of the invention is to improve an openable motor vehicle roof with respect to guiding a sliding head liner.
This object and other objects are achieved by providing openable motor vehicle roof, comprising at least one cover which can close a roof opening and which can be raised out of a cover closed position into a cover raised position; a sliding head liner located under the at least one cover and moveable concomitantly out of a closed position into a raised position when the at least one cover is raised with the sliding head liner, so that the at least one cover and the sliding head liner jointly clear a ventilation gap, the sliding head liner being slideable furthermore from its closed position into an open position so that the sliding head liner can clear the cover or the roof opening at least for a large part, an elongated guide element along which the sliding head liner can be moved into and out of its open position and including a movable end on which the sliding head liner is held in its closed position and, in the liner raised position, is entrained during motion of the sliding head liner between the closed and raised positions, the elongated guide element including a stationary area and a transition area between the stationary area and the movable end; a movable holding device mounted on the elongated guide element to hold the sliding head liner on a side on which the sliding head liner can clear the ventilation gap in the raised position of the sliding head liner, the sliding head liner being pushed in the stationary area away from the movable end through which or into which the holding device is pushed during motion into the open position of the sliding head liner, in the direction perpendicular to the roof and is held stationary with respect to the roof, wherein the guide element is flexible at least in the transition area between the stationary area and the movable end.
The present invention consists especially in that the guide element is flexible at least in the transition area between the area which is held stationary and the movable end. The particularity of the openable motor vehicle roof therefore consists in that, instead of the conventional multi-part guide element which is made hinged between these parts, now a guide element which is flexible in the area between the (vertically to the roof) stationary area of the guide element and the movable end is used. The hinges of the conventional guide element can be replaced by the flexibility of this guide element area. This simplifies the structure of the guide element and thus also of the entire openable motor vehicle roof with the corresponding associated cost advantages. Moreover, hinges are components which require maintenance in terms of lubrication and sensitivity to dirt; this does not apply to a flexible guide element area with suitable material choice.
As used herein, the expression xe2x80x9clarge partxe2x80x9d which can be cleared by the sliding head liner which can be moved into its open position relates to the format of a sliding head liner or cover. For openable motor vehicle roofs with several combined covers, under certain circumstances this can be less than most of the roof opening. Openable motor vehicle roofs are also conceivable in which there are several sliding head liners, and, in that case, the aforementioned statements for one of the sliding head liners applies preferably to all sliding head liners. Then the term xe2x80x9clarge partxe2x80x9d also relates to the format of the individual sliding head liner.
Generally, openable motor vehicle roofs have a structure such that the cover can be raised on exactly one side relative to the roof and remains on the opposite side essentially at roof level. In doing so, the sliding head liner will be raised on the side assigned to the side of the cover which is to be raised. But the invention relates also to other processes, for example to covers which can be raised on all sides. The guide element construction of the present invention must be provided on at least one side of the sliding head liner.
The movements of the cover and the sliding head liner can take place by hand or motor. This is not detailed herein since different possible versions and drive techniques are familiar to one skilled in the art. But it is preferable that the motion of the sliding head liner out of its closed position into its raised potion takes place by the corresponding motion of the cover, the sliding head liner thus being entrained with the cover. This applies of course only to the situation in which the sliding head liner was in its closed position before. If it was in its open position beforehand, it is preferably decoupled from the movement of the cover into the raised position.
One important advantage of the invention is that due to the flexible execution of the transition area between the (perpendicular to the roof) stationary area of the guide element and the movable end, a one-piece execution of the guide element can be achieved. In this way the guide element can be built especially simply and is easy to install. At least the area of the guide element, in which the holding device which holds the sliding head liner on the guide element can be pushed, is preferably made in one piece. This has the advantage of largely preventing noise during the movements with which the movable holding device moves along the guide element, especially discontinuous noise. This noise can hardly be prevented in multi-part guide elements and transitions between the parts and creates the impression in the user that the roof is xe2x80x9crattlingxe2x80x9d and possible a defect or at least loose parts may be feared. Conversely the grinding or rolling noises which may occur during displacement are less disturbing. It should be noted here that the movable holding device could also be moved by rolling along the guide element, but in a simpler and preferred case however it slides.
The guidance of the sliding head liner over the aforementioned movable holding device on the guide element can be executed in a variety of ways with respect to the shaping of the participating elements. But it is preferably in this invention that the guide element has a crowned cross sectional profile. Here the term xe2x80x9ccrownedxe2x80x9d also comprises polygonal corner profiles and also parts of otherwise uncrowned profiles such as the crossbeams in a T-profile. This profile can be encompassed by a suitable holding device so that it can be pushed along the profile. In the simplest case, it is an at least partially circular cross sectional profile. A concave cross sectional profile of the guide element is also possible. In any case, there must be a guide in the directions perpendicular to the direction of displacement.
Furthermore, the guide element in any case is made in the flexible transition area preferably as a flexible metal rod (which in the simplest case has the aforementioned crowned cross section).
The movable end of the guide element can be stiffened so that the flexible properties which would otherwise be present, for example as the result of a one-piece execution with a flexible transition area, are cancelled by the stiffening. In this way a fixed shape of the movable end which is preserved during the various movements can be defined. For example, there can be a straight shape of the movable end over a certain section which is oblique in the raised position of the sliding head liner such that it dictates the rise of the pertinent side of the sliding head liner into its raised position when it is moved out of the open position of the sliding head liner. The transition from this oblique straight section of the guide element into the area which runs otherwise essentially parallel to the motor vehicle roof can be accomplished then by a flexible transition area.
For example, the aforementioned metal rod can be produced as a rolled section which, in addition to a crowned, inherently flexible cross sectional profile portion, has a further stiffening cross sectional profile portion, for example a lateral xe2x80x9clugxe2x80x9d. The stiffening cross sectional profile portion can be removed by punching it out or in some other way at certain locations in order to produce separation between the flexible transition area and the aforementioned stiffened section of the movable end. The stiffening cross sectional profile portion can also be used, for example, to attach the stationary section of the guide element.
To improve the sliding properties, the guide element can be provided with a plastic coating. Here the plastic coating can also contribute to stiffening. The plastic can be sprayed onto the guide element. The plastic can also be responsible solely for the guidance properties, while a metal part or metal cores, for example a leaf spring, contributes only to establishing the flexible properties.
In the aforementioned version in which the cover can be moved into its open position, it is generally desirable for the sliding head liner to be entrained when the cover is moving into the cover open position. In this invention, this can take place preferably by the cover being connected via a carrier to the guide element which lies on the side of the movable holding device of the sliding head liner facing the movable end so that, when the cover is moved towards its open position, it strikes this holding device and thus entrains the sliding head liner in this direction. The sliding head liner should be entrained such that it essentially clears the part of the roof opening which has been opened by the cover.
The motion of the cover from its closed position into its raised position should preferably likewise entrain the sliding head liner into the raised position of the sliding head liner if the sliding head liner was previously in its closed position. To do this, the aforementioned carrier may be coupled to the cover or the means for raising the cover such that when it moves into the cover raised position, it entrains the movable end of the guide element and thus also the sliding head liner, i.e. via the aforementioned movable holding device of the sliding head liner. One possibility consists in that the carrier is attached or coupled to a control lever of a conventional water gutter which in turn is coupled to the raising motion of the cover.
In conjunction with the aforementioned fact that the guide element is made in one piece in the areas which can be encompassed by the holding device, it was explained that the lack of noise can be an important quality feature of the raisable roof of the present invention. Another aspect of the low noise relates to the movable end of the guide element in those situations in which it is not held in some other way. For example, in the above explained versions, it is held by a carrier which is coupled to the cover, when the cover is in its raised position or its closed position. But if the cover is in its open position, the carrier can be pushed along the guide element away from the movable end so that this could cause rattling noise if it remains freely movable. It is preferably intended in the present invention that a holding means for the guide element be attached which stops the free mobility which leads to noise. This can be for example a magnet which can hold one magnetic part of the movable end of the guide element. In this way the carrier can easily also release the movable end when it is to be entrained into the raised position.